


We, who were born from death

by Stockholmsyndrom



Series: Royai Week 2019 [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 14:03:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19174786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stockholmsyndrom/pseuds/Stockholmsyndrom
Summary: A great Tragedy destroys the City of Xerxes as Berthold Hawkeye tries to bring back his dead wife. Many die and the two that survive?Their lives are changed for all eternity.





	We, who were born from death

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my entry for the second day of Royai Week 2019. Prompt: Mortal/Immortal
> 
> I was agonising over what to do for the prompt when I was sitting at work and thought: Well what if Berthold was in a similar place as Hohenheim? 
> 
> And then this was born. This could work as a prologue to a much bigger story. I have already a lot of ideas for where this could go eventually and maybe I will start working on this once Royai Week is over... 
> 
> I love coming up with all of these different concepts and seeing what could turn out to be a bigger story. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

When Riza finally came back to, her whole body ached. She coughed, her mouth full of dust and gravel, her lips dried and cracking, She blinked away the sand in her eyes, trying to sit up.

Something heavy was pinning her down. She tried to shake off the weight that kept her trapped on the ground, but it was of no use. She rolled onto her side, escaping from what turned out to be a body lying right on top of hers.

"Roy?", she called out the name of her father's apprentice.

Her head was pounding and she felt like she was about to throw up. As she crawled out from underneath Roy, she felt the shake in her knees. Everything around her was eerily quiet.

She brought a shaking hand to Roy's shoulder, turning him onto his back. He looked pale - his face was lifeless, but she could see his shallow breathing. Relief flooded her body.

She tried to remember what had happened. Her father had carved a giant transmutation circle into the City. And then he had... he had tried to bring back her mother.

With strength she didn't possess, Riza jumped to her feet, looking around frantically. The huge tubs full of water, carbon, ammonia and all the other ingredients her father had gathered around her, were gone.

In their place was a dark creature, heavily breathing and scratching the floor with one haggard hand. 

"Ri...za..."

Riza fell to her knees, scared. Her whole body filled with fear and disgust. She looked around for her father. Where was he? What had he done? Was this what he had brought back? Was this supposed to be her mother?

Tears of pure terror ran down her cheeks as the faint memory she had of her beautiful and loving mother was replaced with the image of this gruesome creature reaching out for her.

She let herself fall back, cradling her knees close to her body and wrapping her arms around them, burying her head in the small space she had made for herself. She didn't want to see it. She didn't want to see anything.

"Ri...zaa..." the unholy creature rasped again and Riza choked down a scream.

Suddenly there were hands covering her ears and she was pressed against a warm chest. Riza breathed in the musky scent of sweat and blood, as a pair of strong arms encircled her and held her close.

"Thank God, you're alive..." Roy whispered into her hair. "I thought they were going to kill you..."

Riza finally realized that she was still shirtless, her father had exposed her back with the tattoo of the center part of the transmutation circle.

 

He had used her skin as a canvas and her blood to bind her mother's soul. Riza had been terrified of the wild eyes of her father, as he had told her to strip her shirt and lay down on the altar that was functioning as the center of the transmutation circle. She had covered her breasts and laid down as quickly as she could, Feeling the eyes of the people in the room raking over her naked flesh.

When her father had begun his sacred ritual, Riza had been scared. She knew how dangerous alchemy could be. She and Roy had found that out during their shared research into flame alchemy. And this - bringing back someone from the dead - this was unholy and a cursed undertaking.

Everything had begun to glow in the deepest scarlet and the earth beneath her feet had started to shake. Like an earthquake.

Riza remembered the screams around her and she desperately dug her nails into the stone when a weight suddenly threw itself on her.

"Riza!"

It had been Roy, dashing into the room and throwing himself onto her protectively, shielding her from the falling rubble.

 

"Where is father?" she finally dared to ask, trying to find her voice. "Where is my father?"

Roy then let go of her, slowly letting his arms drop to just gently lay on her shoulders.

"What did he do to you?", he asked instead of giving her an answer.

Riza shivered at the urgency in his voice. He still hadn't let go of her, his eyes boring themselves into hers. It was only when he let his gaze drop just the slightest that he let her go and hastily took off his Shirt. Gently, he laid it around her shoulders, covering her exposed flesh and saving her modesty.

Under other circumstances Riza would have been touched by the chivalrous gesture, but right now she didn't have the energy to concentrate on niceties. She wrapped herself into his shirt and got up onto her feet, finally taking a look around the room.

It had been filled with People - guards, priests, alchemists - all of them were sprawled out on the floor, their bodies lifeless. Riza stumbled through the remains of her father's closest advisors and colleagues, None of them seemed to have been spared.

She tried to ignore the gruesome creature that was supposed to be her mother - it was too awful to think about.

"Father?", she asked even though her hope of finding Berthold Hawkeye alive had been crushed once she had realized that everyone else in the room had died. Everyone except for her and Roy.

She finally found him - he was lying on the ground, his face ashen, eyes wide and empty. Riza fell to her knees, there was no strength left in her anymore. She brought a quivering hand to his face, gently brushing away the hair that had fallen into his eyes. She closed them forever.

 

As they walked through the City of Xerxes, Riza's desperation grew. Wherever they looked, hundreds of bodies lined the streets. They looked like they all collectively dropped dead. No one seemed to have been spared.

Except them.

"I think we were in the Center of the transmutation circle. You were literally the center," he said, gesturing to her back. Riza pulled his shirt tighter around her body.

"So you are still alive because you ran over to me...", Riza mused.

Roy nodded.

"Yes. Had I not tried to shield you, I wouldn't have been at the center. I would have been dead, too."

Riza shivered. She didn't want to think about it. She would have been alone, alone in a sea of the dead, alone with that thing.

She clasped Roy's hand, holding onto it tightly.

"I am glad."

 

It would take them a while until they would understand what exactly had happened that day in Xerxes. Neither of them felt the souls of the people of Xerxes clinging to their bones. Roy had yet to watch Riza throw herself in between him and a blade, bleeding out in his arms to protect him, only to wake up when he was sobbing into her chest. 

Riza had not seen Roy with his heart pierced by a knife when he was robbed for the little coin he carried, only to come staggering back to their tent. 

Neither had yet clawed their way back from a grave brushing the gravel from their clothes, their fingernails raw from digging through the fresh soil. 

 

As far as they knew right now, Roy and Riza had survived the Great Tragedy of Xerxes. 

Together.


End file.
